This morning, Jin received an e-mail from und_announce. This mail is Statement from UND President Dr. Charles Kupchella and UND Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Greg Weisenstein. Yesterday afternoon, staff at the University of North Dakota School of Law discovered an 8-by-10-inch figure of a swastika on the outside of a window near one of the Law School entrances. In the mail, they mentioned that the swastika has come to be a symbol of hate, conveying a message of intimidation, violence and intolerance. They said "we are saddened, disappointed and disgusted that swastikas have appeared on our campus. These acts are NOT tolerated at UND. There is no place the University of North Dakota -- or anywhere else, for that matter -- for harassing, demeaning or culturally insensitive acts. We will continue to investigate these activities and when perpetrators are identified, we will seek prosecution through our Code of Student life and, where warranted, through the court systems."
Actually, swastika is not only the symbol of the Nazis, but also the symbol of good things. Until the Nazis used this symbol, the swastika was used by many cultures throughout the past 3,000 years to represent life, sun, power, strength, and good luck. Throughout the subcontinent of India, it can be seen on the sides of temples, religious scriptures, gift items, and letterheads. Therefore, maybe the swastika on the outside of the window means sun, power, strength, and good luck. I heard about the swastika from an Indian before. She told me that they still use it as a symbol in a good way now. Then I am a little confused, how can people know it is used in a bad way or in a good way?
In my opinion, people don't need to be too sensitive about that symbol. After all, the Nazis will never come back again!Symbol is only a symbol!
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Yeah, actually, I had a friend in college who was Indian and her first name was Swastika. Everyone in our dorm thought it was weird, but after she explained what it meant, it made more sense.
I think that when the symbol randomly appears as graffiti or places like a University campus, then it is generally meant to be hateful. White supremacists in the U.S. (and maybe elsewhere, I don't know) use the symbol to further their cause. However, I also think that here at UND, it is probably one person or one group of people who are doing this in order to cause attention. The whole university is not racist, and the whole university (or even a large portion) is not going around painting swastikas in random places. I think the UND community is a very welcoming, open-minded one that would not support this if they knew who was doing it.
Yes, you are right! Probably I misunderstood again.:-) Sometime i still can't differentiate the meanings of some words because they have both good and bad meanings. Thanks for telling me this!I really appreciate!
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